Paintbooth!

[treker_ed]

Hi Guys!

Sorry if this is in the wrong section - but as it's painting I thought that here would be as good as anywhere!

Okay, due to the amount of paint dust being generated when spraying my kits, I have had to take a slightly enforced break from modelling for the time being. The room I model in also has a rather expensive and high powered gaming PC, which due to the very nature needs to be kept cool and clean of dust. I recently had to spend the best part f 3 hours, taking the thing apart right down to taking the motherboard out, and removing the extremely large cooling assembly for the CPU.

As a consequence of this, it has been decided that I need to invest in a paint booth with extractor fan. Now due to extremely limited funds (i.e. I'm not working - and not claiming JSA - we are reliant purely on my wifes income) I need a very cheap way of building my own.

Has any one done this? if so, how easy is it to do and what do I need? To give an idea of size requirements, I have several 1/32 kits - Revel Uhu, Hunter, Mig 29UT as examples, so would need a setup big enough to house these when being painted.

Thank you

treker_ed

[Mike]

I built my own some years back using an inverted cooker hood - the flat kind that just hangs (ominously) over the cooker. It was £30, and I just built up a rough booth around it with melomine faced chipboard, and put a hose from the outlet to a hole in the wall and a weatherproof vent. I have to clean out the motor every 6 months or so, but contrary to the scare-mongers, I've not yet managed to blow myself up because of paint fumes and un-shielded motors. They wouldn't put an un-shielded motor on an appliance that might end up sucking out gas from an unlit gas ring, would they?

I put a little daylight fluorescent tube in the top to give some extra light too, and have the compressor, extractor and light on a single switch to speed switching on & off.

[Jinxman]

hi - same story as Mike really - I built my own as well - no explosions in the man (& whippet) cave yet , but this is my own decision of course.

Here is a pic - the kit is a 1/48 Canberra - it will take a 1/24th fighter comfortably.

If you want more details LMK..total cost £3 for the acrylic door - the rest scrounged together..

cheers

[Riggers]

Hi treker-ed,

Somewhere on here I posted a VERY CHEAP how to on a spray booth. The lot was about £20.00!

Have a search & you'll find it.....works like a dream & Mrs Riggers doesn't chew the ears off cos of the Alclad!!!

ATB

[Mitch K]

Same old here too. I only work on wargame minis and 1/72 scale aircraft, but mine is a plastic packing crate with a 12V cooling fan from an old PC let into a hole I drilled in the back. A bit of spare tumble dryer duct acts as the outfall. I screwed the air filter/water trap to the side of the box and added a couple of tool hooks to hold the brush when not in use. It's given good service so far for essentially no cost.

I'd be slightly wary of using mains-powered fans if I was spraying anything flammable or with large volumes of atomised solids, but years in chemistry labs has made me a bit paranoid!

[S5 modeller]

Sorry to butt in, but I am thinking of making the same thing.

With the inverted cooker hood design, does the fans not suck the atomized paint away before it hits the model?

Matt.